Don’t Drink with Apartheid, It’ll Surely Ruin your Appetite!

Cactus Club, a chain of restaurants in Western Canada, is carrying one of the Galil wines labelled from Israel on its wine list. Despite several attempts to engage with their management on this issue (see letter below), they have not even acknowledged receiving our messages; rather, they have chosen to ignore the human rights principles at stake. We must let Cactus Club know that many of its customers find this offensive and that it will affect our decision to patronize their restaurants.

The following is an informational video leading up to the June 7th, 2008 picket of the BC Liquor Store:

BOYCOTT ISRAELI WINES
Next picket June 7th 2-4 pm, BC Liquor Store, 1520 Commercial Dr., Vancouver
On this 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, the Israeli government has announced plans to “rebrand” its 60 years of dispossession and ethnic cleansing. Here in B.C., the focus of this “rebranding” is the promotion of wines under an Israeli label in B.C. liquor stores, which are now carrying products from the Galil Mountain Winery, the Golan Heights Winery and the Dalton Winery. The Golan Heights Winery (of which the Galil Winery is a …

The following letter was sent to the Georgia Straight on Feb. 15, 2008.
It might interest your readers to know that the “new-generation Israeli wines” that Jurgen Gothe was promoting (Feb. 14/08) are literally fruit from the vines of Israeli occupation. We recently sent a letter to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch on this very subject which they have responded to claiming this matter is not under their “jurisdiction” and they offer products on a commercial demand basis. Here are some excerpts of our originial letter.
“The Golan Heights Winery (of which …

“‘The land of Israel has been producing wines for 5,000 years’, said Norman Gladstone, Principal of International Cellars Inc. ‘In the last thirty years, the wine industry in Israel has adopted modern technology leading to higher quality wines which have burst onto the international scene. We are pleased and honoured to bring Israel’s top wineries to British Columbia.’”
With these words, the news release issued by the Canada-Israel Committee on Dec 20, 2007 announced the introduction of these wines to the Canadian province of B.C. This is an amazing rewrite of …